Biography-Memoir – Page 3 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir

By Scott J. Pearson | October 3, 2023October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

The Rastafarian movement aspired to free black people to take pride in being themselves in an petulant world. Unfortunately, as Safiya Sinclair here portrays, those ideals themselves sometimes led to oppressive circumstances, especially towards women and towards the curious-at-heart. She grew up in Jamaica to a musician-father who tried to seclude his family from the rest of the world (termed “Babylon”). He pressed education, but the determination and exposures Sinclair learned in school pushed her…

James K. Polk by John Seigenthaler

By Scott J. Pearson | September 27, 2023October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

US President James Polk (1845-1849) elicits strong opinions from those aware of his record. They either love him for his effectiveness and performance or hate him for his difficult personality and the Mexican War. So-called “Young Hickory,” styling himself after “Old Hickory” Andrew Jackson, Polk set out to be a one-term president and to accomplish four specific goals outlined in his inaugural. He accomplished all of them and died a few months after leaving the…

Biography-Memoir Leadership Religion-Philosophy

The Deep Faith of Paul Robeson

By Scott J. Pearson | September 24, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

On August 29, 2023, the Pew Research Center released survey data about the crossing between religious groups and racial issues. 53 percent of Americans said that people not seeing racial discrimination where it does exist was a bigger problem. 45 percent said the opposite, that people seeing discrimination where it does not exist is a bigger issue. To anyone who has followed American politics in recent years, these results should come as no surprise. After…

Biography-Memoir

The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898-1939

By Scott J. Pearson | September 9, 2023September 9, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Paul Robeson was one of the most dynamic characters in the twentieth century, but is often forgotten today. A pastor’s son, he grew to be a unanimous All-American defensive end at Rutgers, an award-winning scholar, a law student, a stage actor, a musical artist, a polyglot, and a film actor – all in the first forty years of his life and all despite a strong culture of racism in his home country. The second half…

Biography-Memoir

Here I Stand by Paul Robeson

By Scott J. Pearson | August 30, 2023August 30, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

In the middle of the twentieth century, Paul Robeson was considered the most well-known American in the world. He was a famous singer, football player, and polymath/scholar who advocated for universal equal rights, especially at home in America. However, during the 1950s, he made a statement supportive of the USSR, and he was blacklisted by the US State Department in the Red Scare. Subsequently, he was denied a passport, essential for an international showman. Eventually,…

Biography-Memoir Leadership Religion-Philosophy

The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife

By Scott J. Pearson | August 29, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Many of us who grew up in conservative evangelical churches bear stark memories of how a culture can entrap people instead of empowering them. One prime way is through gender roles, in a form of patriarchy where only men are allowed leadership roles and a public voice. Decades ago, Shannon Harris married the best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye) and quickly became a silent, unpaid role of a pastor’s wife. In this memoir,…

Biography-Memoir Indie Psychology

Oh, By the Way, I Have a Mental Illness

By Scott J. Pearson | August 27, 2023August 27, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Those newly diagnosed with a mental illness usually face a bleak time. While a diagnosis is infinitely better than uncontrolled mental illness, sources of hope to overcome challenges can be few and far between. Many rightly focus on learning more about their psychological condition. Reestablishing your professional and personal lives, often wrecked by disease, becomes paramount. Some build on this knowledge and transition their career towards specializing in mental illness. However, few published stories are…

Biography-Memoir History Society

Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Massacre in Her Own Words

By Scott J. Pearson | August 15, 2023August 15, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

After emancipation, the Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, served as an example of what African Americans could build in a free world. So-called “Black Wall Street” epitomized a community built around entrepreneurship, social responsibility, freedom, and neighborly love. They embodied American ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as much as anyone else. Until the jealous white mob got involved in 1921. One night, in response to false accusations against a black citizen,…

Biography-Memoir Politics Society

Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home & World

By Scott J. Pearson | June 4, 2023August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

David Moinina Sengeh was seemingly at the peak of a great career triumph. Educated in America at Harvard and MIT, he was now a governmental cabinet member of education in his home country Sierra Leone. However, at the very beginning of his president’s term, the president – his boss – said that he would maintain the previous regime’s policy of banning pregnant girls from school. To most, this move seemed to make sense. However, to…